We Will Overcome
by Koopatrol
Summary: How would you react...if everything fell apart before your very eyes? [Cover art courtesy of Siontix on ]


**Chapter One**

Sometime in between my deepening, troubled thoughts of the imminent battle ahead, the environment around us had changed completely. It took me quite some time to finally notice that we had exited the dense pine forest that covered ShadowClan's territory, and were making a steady and confident march towards RiverClan's marshy territory. Squinting my eyes against the harsh, frigid winds, I trudged through the thick, crystalline snow that blanketed the sodden earth below me. Rays of cobalt illumination provided by the half-moon beamed down through the wispy clouds that painted the sky. The night was excessively cold, and without my thick coat of fur, I feel as if I would have frozen to death.

To say the least, it was definitely not the best night to have planned an attack on a powerful Clan. Even with a group as massive as ours, consisting of a large ShadowClan patrol led by the deputy, Hazepelt, and the group of rogue mercenaries I belonged to, battling in such conditions seemed too difficult for my liking; and while I was opposed to fighting in this battle, I unfortunately had no choice but to do so, for my survival depended on it. If we came out on top, ShadowClan promised to provide support to us for four moons. That was undoubtedly a reason to maintain overall morale.

As we crossed the frozen-over river, I felt the pads of my paws sting with the sharp pain of pure ice. What an unpleasant feeling that was. Luckily, we were completely clear of the river when Hazepelt stopped us all to go over last-minute preparations. Of course, the bitterness began to get to me even more as we all stood completely still in the snow. It took a while before the black and white deputy spoke to us in his generically confident tone. "Tonight shall be a glorious night for ShadowClan, my friends!" He hollered, scanning his eyes over our combat group with his proud, green gaze. The cats around me cheered in agreement. "We shall seize control of the Halfbridge, and _all_of its surrounding territory!" he continued, the majority of the cats basically yowling in agreement. I sighed, hoping that our unnecessary loudness hadn't alerted any nearby RiverClan cats of our impending attack. "Remember to flood the camp on my call. Don't hesitate." He concluded his short speech by turning and leading us towards the camp.

I was tense. We were approaching the camp quickly, and I couldn't get my mind off of the fact that we would most likely be in a major scuffle that some of us could potentially lose our lives in. At my side, I felt someone fall in next to me. "You don't look too good," the cat meowed in a concerned and familiar tone. I looked up into the dark blue gaze of my white-furred friend, Smoketail, noticing that his silky fur bore a cobalt-lining produced by the moon hanging in the horizon behind him.

"Come to think of it, I do feel a bit nervous," I responded softly.

"In that case, you should sit this battle out. I'll cover for you if Hawk happens to notice your absence, which I doubt he will," he offered generously. The cat he spoke of, Hawk, was the leader and founder of our group. He wasn't the worst leader, but he was excessively cocky. While he was relatively friendly towards us, I hated conversing with him, as he was very intimidating. One other thing I hated about him was his strictness; he wasn't the kind of cat whose bad side you'd want to get on, either.

"Thank you," I mewed silently, my voice barely above a whisper. "But I wouldn't feel right doing that." He looked down as we continued walking. "If you're sure."

A long moment of silence fell between the two of us. Smoketail and I had been great friends ever since we first met as members of separate Clans at a gathering. I was in ThunderClan, and he was in WindClan. We had talked the night of the gathering of our various Clan affairs and agreed on several points, but our friendship was frowned upon by the two Clan leaders due to high tensions. When a severe border war between the two Clans broke out about two moons later, we both deserted and became Rogues. He never bothered to change his name into a more suitable one - he bore the name Smoketail long after he left his old Clan. Hawk recruited us to join his mercenary group a while later, promising us an abundance of food and great shelter. Overall, it was pretty great. We didn't have to put in a lot of work to stay well fed, considering the glorious deals we got. Most of them came from ShadowClan, who always offered us the same four moons of continued support as long as we agreed to fight for them as needed. Considering the Clans were usually at peace, not much fighting really occurred. There was the occasional border skirmish, but other than that, things were pretty calm.

After a while, we arrived at RiverClan's camp. Hawk and Hazepelt nodded at each other and trotted through the entrance without saying a word to us. We had gone over the plan so many times, that it was practically burnt into our memories - the two leaders were to speak with Rapidstar, leader of RiverClan, or Aquatail, deputy of RiverClan, in an attempt to convince them to surrender the territory without useless blood spill. I was hoping that it would work, but I had a bad feeling it wouldn't.

Silence. Silence haunted us for the longest time. We stood there for what seemed like hours just waiting for the battle call. My heart was pounding with an intensity I had never before experienced. The nervousness I felt was multiplied by the fact that I was basically on the front lines, and if any of us Rogues were to be killed, I would be one of the first to go. I gazed up at the moon, and felt the wind ruffle my fur. I was dreading the moment the battle call would sound over the ambient sounds of the forest. Smoketail sat silently next to me, doing the same thing I was doing. We exchanged a few words nervously, but were mostly quiet during the long process of waiting for our plan to be carried out.

"What could be taking them so long…?" he asked in a concerned tone, turning his head to face me.

"Not sure," I responded vaguely in an emotionless tone.

"Something must've happened to them."

"We would've heard them yowl by now if they were in danger." Smoketail was a worrier - he always thought of the worst case scenario. This was difficult for me to cope with because he was always voicing his concerns to _me_. It got annoying, but I suppose I never really told him not to do it. He always told me that I never expressed emotions very blatantly; perhaps that's why.

There were soft murmurs sounding around us; confused ones, enthusiastic ones, general quiet conversations. Looking around at our combat group, I only recognized a few cats – specifically the more elite fighters of our group. Cinder, a gray-pelted tom with light green eyes, was conversing casually with a ShadowClan she-cat. Smoketail and I found a good deal of amusement out of him, as he always tried to impress she-cats with his farfetched battle stories. Then there was Cloud, who was just a typical, white, long-furred tom with dark blue eyes. He was boring and…slightly on the mouse-brained side. Then there was Foliage, a tortoiseshell she-cat who I knew nothing about due to her reserved personality. Then there was Smoketail and I, making it five cats in all from our mercenary group, six if you count Hawk.

The dreaded moment arrived after a good amount of time – the battle call sounded over the forest and at once we found ourselves flooding the camp. As I was charging towards the camp, I had only enough time to wonder how large the battle would be. I figured that, since we ran into no patrols on the way, most of the clan would be there. When I reached the entrance, which was backed up from all of the fighting, I was barely able to catch sight of their forces; a considerable amount of cats guarding specific areas, and only a few trying to hold us off. The strategy initially confused me, as it seemed as though they would need more strength on the front lines.

We began to push through, and there it was – to my shock, there were way more cats than I had at first seen. It was a full scale battle, and I was about to be in the middle of it.

**A/N: It is important for the reader to understand that this is subject to overall edits that will not in any way affect the storyline at all. Thank you for reading.**


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